Niqūlā Khalīl Naṣr Allāh was a passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
Niqūlā Khalīl Naṣr Allāh was was born around 1883 to Khalīl Ilyās Naṣr Allāh and Wardah Shehadi in Zahlah, a small city in the Beqaa Valley of what is now Lebanon, but was then under Ottoman supervision and belonged to Syria until 1920. The city lied 55 km east of Beirut. Niquala had several siblings.
Niqūlā was tempted to transmigrate to the USA in 1908 following the resounding success of his uncles Albert and Abraham in San Fransisco. They had garnered quite a fortune in the movie theatre business with their nickelodeans. They had several establishments. Niqūlā was desitined to follow in their footsteps, though he pursued another branch of his uncle Albert in his young career in the United States. Albert was a candy and confectionates salesman in San Fransisco and his business flourished.
Niqūlā followed his example. His business was booming as well in 1912. By now, he could provide for a woman in his life, so he went back to Syria to look for one. He was just as succesfull in his quest as in his company, as he found the young Adāl Hakīm. She was also from Zahlah and 13 years younger. She was 14 and he was 32. Niqūlā got married to her on 19. March 1895.
Together they had what could be viewed as a honey moon in Paris.
Titanic[]
From Paris they went to Cherbourg, as they wanted to go to California and needed to cross the Atlantic Ocean on an ocean liner. This ship was destined to be the Titanic. On April 10 in the evening, the ship had come and they were transferred via a smaller tender. He and his wife were the only Second Class passengers from Syria.
On April 14, the Titanic hadn’t had any notable complications during her effortless Maiden Voyage. This changed when on that night, one iceberg was right in front of her but could not be seen till she was very close. The Titanic had to make a port manouvre around it while she slowed down but that couldn’t prevent her from scraping alongside the berg on her starboard side. From that moment, Titanic had her buoyancy severly affected as small gashes had appeared underneath the waterline over a good length. These gasles let tons of water into the ship. Soon, her lowest deck was filling up with sea water.
At April 15, midnight, Captain Smith had talked to ship designer Thomas Andrews, who built Titanic. With mathetmatics, he had awful news for the ship’s master. The ship couldn't take the water. She was not unsinkable after all and would only be afloat for two hours at best. The lifeboats were prepared on the captain's orders. It was now 12:05 A.M,
Niqūlā and Adāl were on deck much later. As he so bravely guarded his wife and got her onto a lifeboat, he gave up his life for her to at least know that she’d be safe. He didn’t attempt to rescue himself and stayed behind. This would ultimately cost him his life. As Titanic broke and sank at 2:20 A.M, many of those that were still on the doomed giant, were left to the mercy of the cold Atlantic. Many would die within half and hour of suffering from hypothermia. We don’t know how Niqūlā died.
His body was picked up a few days later by a ship specificially sent out to search for corpses and identify them. This was was the cable ship Mackay-Bennett. He was identified as well. They marked him as body no # 43. He was given a grave at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Halifax.
After his death[]
As Adāl survived, she had to wait for the Carpathia to pick up her lifeboat and then the survivors of Titanic were taken to New York. On April 18, Adālwas there and soon they brought her over to Saint Vincent Hospital for recovery. Her brother looked after her from there on.
Adāl could later take over all of Niqūlā’s values which were expensive. A lot of his money was lost in the disaster when he carried it on him. The Titanic Relief Fund gave Niqūlā’s parents $200 for the death of their son.
Niqūlā Naṣr Allāh was a postuum father for a brief moment. On December 9, 1912, Adāl gave birth to his son, Albert. However, she had to go through the pain of loss all over again when he was dead in a few hours. Many years later, she raised another family with a new husband and lived a happy life.